Yet Another Short Story
by The Wolf That Got Away
Summary: A short story about the End of the Cycle, narrated by a human


**Author's Note : This one here is about the End of the Cycle. Would be awesome if we could pit the thing against endgame crisis aliens, if we don't have to re-enact the Fall of Eldar from Warhammer 40K.**

**-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-**

May 4th, Year 2455

I wish I could tell the whole story here. You know, write down the start with once upon a time sentence and all that. And then I narrate the story, starting from the characters' names, jobs, and place of living, then narrate the conflicts and the ending...

I guess none of that mattered now. Who am I? Don't bother asking. I've stopped trying to remember my own name the moment we had to fled UNE space, wandering aimlessly into the void. Some thirty thousand people or so followed the ramblings of an allegedly mad admiral, who once spoke of how the UNE's forage into controversial sciences would bring the apocalypse to our doorstep. Guess what? He was dead right; the masses simply ignored him, and the higher ups were too busy keeping UNE safe from waves after waves of seemingly ruthless, if not outright murderous, alien civilizations.

We are now reduced to vagrants in migration. No homes, no backup... no certainty. The survivors had no idea whether the other races were spared from the calamity or not. For all we know, the galaxy might as well be depopulated at this point.

We are now sailing across deep space, wondering if there's a place untouched yet by the reckoning. Hope is probably the only thing keeping us alive.

Try as I might, I still couldn't shake off the voice of our psionics talking in unison.

**It is not yet your time... but it could be.**

The psionics went silent afterward, but it's as if we all already know what was being offered by the entity from beyond. Universal influence, the revelation of enigmatic knowledge, ad limitless resources would be ours to claim and use as we saw fit...

**If we will only bring forth the end.**

**-x-x-x-x-x-**

June 1st, Year 2455

How did we, the United Nations of Earth, had people of preternatural powers?

We didn't, not naturally at least. Also, we humans were meant to outgrow silly superstition and put our faith in science, not magic or traditional beliefs. If only we knew what lurked in the dark corners of the cosmos back then.

It all started sometime after our ideological 'cousins', the Commonwealth of Man, unleashed their xenophobic fury onto a murderous molluscoid species referred to only as the Fanatical Purifiers. They were an extraterrestrial civilization hellbent on purging the galaxy of any sapient life, including us. With the Commonwealth's victory, humanity was assured that we would be safe.

We weren't safe. We won't be safe at all.

Three to four decades of aggressive exploration and expansion revealed the existence of so many civilization in the galaxy, and boy, were they as unfeeling as the Fanatical Purifiers.

Peaceful civilizations were few and far between. We the xenophilic UNE might as well be a tiny bubble floating on a dark ocean. Any alien races willing to coexist in harmony with us, let alone establishing trade route and research agreement with us, would inevitably be stamped out by their stronger and meaner neighbors, aliens who saw humanity as either future rivals or prey. All attempts at diplomacy went largely ignored, as if humanity didn't deserve their attention. There was this one moment where a particularly nasty hegemonic empire metaphorically threw our gifts of valuable mineral back at us. No one understood the reason behind it.

We were alone out there.

In one century, the galaxy became a gloomy place to live. Even the UNE began to lose its open-minded philosophy thanks to all the wars and political infighting. As cynicism grew within our ranks, so were religious cults and morally abhorrent scientists. Humanity desperately turned toward something, anything, that could theoretically protect us from the forces of the void.

**-x-x-x-x-x-**

June 28th, Year 2455

Continuing from before, fringe scientists from the UNE's top universities claimed to have found an alternate dimension called the 'Shroud'. I don't remember the exact name, but I was there working as a junior assistant, so I got to hear the basic premise of this psionic project. These mad scientist said that, by twisting the laws of physics, they could grant a mere mortal supernatural powers akin to that of magicians in old folktales as well as utterly changing the laws of physics as we know it.

To be honest, I never believed all that, and so were the majority of the UNE and Commonwealth's leadership. I don't believe in magic. But even then the Commonwealth were running low on manpower and resources to keep humanity from falling prey to the increasingly hostile xenos. So they bankrolled the project, or projects, as this 'Shroud' thing attracted fringe organizations who tried to capitalize on its discovery under the guise of saving the human race.

At first, it was awesome.

New scientific frontiers became open for study. Engineering projects and computation became faster, cheaper, and stronger. Terraforming planets was twice as fast than before. Soldiers on duty were able to mow down hordes of alien pirates and mercenaries with ease. It's as if we suddenly hold the universe and its secrets in the palm of our hands. We somehow became unstoppable.

It was quite some time before some of the more spiritual-mnded aliens ventured into the Shroud, searching for mindblowing ways to put us back in our former place in the pecking order. Soon, wars erupted between the races; some desired their opponent's technological marvels, others felt the need to remove their rivals as fast as possible.

Competition at its extreme.

That was when we made contact with the mysterious entity. The End of the Cycle. It offered us power, wealth, and influence... for a price.

**-x-x-x-x-x-**

August 5th, 2455

Fifty years had passed since the deal was made, and humanity crusaded across the galaxy like the ancient warriors of Sparta.

Our psionics panicked, warning us over and over that the deadline was nigh. We knew that we were going to pay something in return of the entity's generosity. But we also secretly hoped that we could somehow bear the price of the deal, or find a loophole to avoid paying it altogether.

We could not.

There was no alert whatsoever from the End of the Cycle that it would come to reap what we sow, but it took absolutely everything from us. In a flash, our population, scattered across planets and space stations, fell lifeless to the ground. Where there once mighty fleets capable of tearing through empires, now there were only debris fields. All infrastructure was destroyed very thoroughly, and whole planets rendered uninhabitable in an instant. All that was left was a massively powerful psionic entity carrying the consciousness of our people in it, embarking on a galaxy-wide voyage to sate its ravenous hunger.

Only one military admiral was clever enough to see the reckoning coming our way. He willingly risked his reputation and job in order to convince as many as he could to make a run for it... before it's too late.

The UNE and Commonwealth of Man, once standing tall and proud at their prime, was left at a mere thirty thousand strong. Just enough to repopulate our species.

How stupid we were. As the mad admiral already pointed out, the Shroud entity said very clearly; _if we will only bring about the end_. We didn't listen back then. We deluded ourselves for so long that we forgot about the deal's true nature.

What is there left for us while the galaxy tries desperately to clean up our mess?

Come to think about it. It has been a year or so since we last heard anything from the extraterrestials. Had they beat the entity back to its hellhole? Were they even alive to celebrate their victory?

All our space comms channel remained silent. We don't know if we should celebrate too or not.

We don't know if it's still out there, biding its time.


End file.
